Every once in a while I come across some puzzling things in my Essie polish collection and it usually has to do with colour discrepancy. Sometimes it's because Essie reformulates a polish and completely changes the colour (HERE & HERE) and sometimes it's because the polish is changing colours on it's own (Part 1 HERE & Part 2 HERE). Well, today's polish is puzzling. I'm pretty sure Essie hasn't reformulated it because it has always had a good formula so that means it has changed colour. Yet I'm not sure which one is the true colour and which is the discoloured bottle! I'm talking about Go Ginza. Why don't I show you pics and tell you about them both and see if we can solve the mystery together?

The first time I was told there might be an issue with Go Ginza was about a year ago when I posted one of the first colour discrepancy posts. Someone commented and said that her bottle of Go Ginza had changed colour over time and had become more pink. I didn't think too much of it and just thought "my bottle is fine, it's always been a pink-toned purple". Fast forward to this past Fall when I was ordering the Fall 2016 Collection and I accidentally received a bottle of Go Ginza instead of Go Go Geisha. The company was great and let me keep the bottle of Go Ginza and then sent me another bottle of Go Go Geisha free of charge. I had no idea what to do with another bottle of Go Ginza...until I went to put it on my nail polish rack and saw that it was a different colour than my old bottle of Go Ginza! My new bottle is more of a lilac colour while my old bottle is much more pink-toned.

Obviously, since this purple bottle of Go Ginza was brand new you would assume that it is the TRUE colour of Go Ginza and my old bottle is the one that has changed colour and become more pink. But look at these bottles next to the bottle that Essie has on their website:

Left to Right: the photo from Essie's website, my old bottle of Go Ginza, my new bottle of Go Ginza

Essie's website bottle looks pretty much exactly like my old bottle of Go Ginza. Essie calls Go Ginza "a soft cherry blossom pink" and that would ring true for my old bottle also. The new bottle of Go Ginza has zero pink at all, it's just lilac.

So does that mean my old bottle is the true Go Ginza and this new one is discoloured?

Let's look at swatches.

Old Bottle of Go Ginza (pink)

The polish is a nice consistency and was surprisingly opaque on the first coat. It self-leveled okay but there was a bit of ridging on the second coat. Most of my nails were opaque in 2 coats but some needed 3 where it was a little patchy. Still easy to apply though. I love the way this one looks on!

New Bottle of Go Ginza (lilac)

Yes this is very very lilac. No "cherry blossom pink" here.

The formula on this Go Ginza is a bit thinner and more sheer so you have to be careful not to put too much polish on the brush or you'll flood your cuticles. I expected this, since my pink Go Ginza is a few years old it would make sense for the formula to have thickened up a bit. This polish went on really evenly and self-leveled much nicer than my old bottle. It was opaque in 2 coats since there was no patchiness.

I actually love the way this one looks too! Remember I said in my soft purples comparison that I really wanted a replacement for my Lilacism that keeps turning blue? I want a pale lilac polish that looks like a bottle of true Lilacism that will just stay lilac...well, this polish might be my answer!

When I go back to nail bloggers posts from 2013 when this polish came out, I'm actually finding two different kind of swatches. KarenD from Frazzle and Aniploish's swatch looks like my new bottle of Go Ginza. It's a pale lilac and she even commented that Essie's description "a soft cherry blossom pink" was not accurate and that the polish was a very pale purple in her eyes. Nail Candy 101 said the same thing...that her bottle is a cool toned lavender.

But on the other hand, All Lacquered Up's swatches look exactly like my old bottle of Go Ginza and she describes it as "a pale whisper of a pink" and she thought Essie calling it a cherry blossom pink was the perfect description. Polish This! said the same thing.

Soooo....maybe this polish isn't changing colours at all. Maybe there was some sort of discrepancy in production and there's actually two different versions of this polish floating around. That's my guess! What do you think?

Alright, now onto another colour changer.

East Hampton Cottage

I love when friends see Essie polishes on sale and pick them up for me! That's what my friend Bailey did last week. I got a text asking if I had East Hampton Cottage and when I said no, she grabbed it for me (it was $2 in a sale bin!). She said it was an ivory polish with shimmer. I remembered a follower telling me a couple years ago that I should get East Hampton Cottage because it was one of her favourites. I THOUGHT she had commented on my white comparison because that would make sense that it was an off-white colour. But when I did a bit of research, I found this:

Well I hope that helped you in some way! This is in no way me crapping on Essie, this is just me pointing out some things I've noticed so you can be an informed consumer. If you are standing in a store and staring at a bottle of ivory East Hampton Cottage and you are puzzled because you thought it was supposed to be pink, then hopefully I've helped in some way. Here's an updated list of Essie polishes I've discovered discolour over time:

Go Ginza (still not sure if it changes colours or if there are two different formulations out there!)

If there's any other polishes you know of that discolour or you have questions, let me know and I'll look into it for you for a future post! Also let me know your thoughts on Go Ginza. Do you think I'm right and there's two different Go Ginza's on the market?

Kindra

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comments:

Ooooh I'm not sure now about Go Ginza (will have to check again in daylight), but I seem to have a bottle that is the exact in-between shade to your two bottles! Not quite as pink as your old one, yet still has enough pink in it to not be a dupe of the new bottle...so it might be a changer after all!

I've recently noticed the color difference in Go Ginza and I agree it looks more like there are two different colors than a color-changer. I know there are two different "versions" of Essie polishes, the salon version and the drugstore version (one has the sticker on top and the other has the sticker on bottom, but I can never remember which is which!). I've noticed that all the purple ones I've seen are top-sticker bottles, but my pink Go Ginza is a bottom-sticker. I can't tell from the photos if this trend holds up for your bottles, but I'd be interested in any further info you come across for this color.

Top stickers come from drugstores and bottom stickers come from salons. That's true for both my Go Ginza's - older more pink one has the sticker on top and it was bought at the drugstore and my newer one is more lilac and was bought online at an Essie e-tailer (same as a salon). I will update you for sure as I discover more!

Nail polish isn't the same as makeup and technically doesn't have a shelf life. Bacteria can't grow in the chemicals inside the polish so it's not a product that will ever become contaminated. So really a polish could last forever. Some of the chemicals can evaporate from the polish causing it to become thick and goopy but you can replace that by adding nail polish thinner.

Kindra, I may have noticed a colour discrepancy! Lapiz of luxury. I picked up a bottle at Walmart the other day.. it was such a beautiful purple. When I searched it online it's described as a blue. Yet, there's no way I'd ever call that blue! I'm not sure if it's a different colours in different releases Or formula error or I picked up an old bottle who's colour has changed. If you do some investigating, I'd be interested to know what you find!